Forest department asserts not a wolf attack A 50-year-old woman was attacked, allegedly by a wolf, at Kureanpurwa in Bahraich district on Wednesday night. Forest officials however maintained that it was not a wolf attack. The woman was sleeping outside when she was attacked by the animal and she bore injury marks on her neck. She was taken to hospital where she was given necessary treatment and is now out of danger. Divisional Forest Officer (Bahraich) Ajeet Singh said that it could be an attack by any other animal but not a wolf. The DFO said that he personally visited the area after receiving the information about the attack but found no pug marks of the wolf. The land was wet because of the rains but we still could not find any pug mark of the wolf. Parallel to the attacks of the wolves there have been attacks by the jackals, causing injuries to the villagers. Experts also pointed out that the injury was not caused by a wolf but by some other animal, he said. The DFO said that the presence of pug marks were the only conclusive evidence of attack by wolf but they were not found in this case. He said one wolf was left to be captured and all efforts were being made to catch it by the Forest department. The DFO said that the wolf was sighted at Sissaya village on Thursday but it became difficult to capture it as it was raining. It ran through the sugarcane fields which were filled with water. Because of the rains we had to stop flying the drones and we followed its pug marks till they were visible. These are the problems which we face while tracking the animal but we are making all efforts, he sai, adding that search operations would continue till the wolf was caught. Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Sanjay Pathak said that both awareness drive and search operations were on and would remain intense till the last wolf was caught. With nine killed and more than 40 injured, the Forest department has launched Operation Bhediya in Bahraich district and has been successful in capturing five wolves. Pathak said that the teams were monitoring the crucial areas. We are using camera traps, thermal drones and traditional methods of tracking. The public is also being made aware. We will again review the situation after four to five days, he added.

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